Her Story: Ladies In Literature with Katie M. Stout

Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a special, month-long series on Pop! Goes The Reader in which we celebrate the literary female role models whose stories have inspired and empowered us since time immemorial. From Harriet M. Welsch to Anne Shirley, Becky Bloomwood to Hermione Granger, Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a series created for women, by women as twenty-four authors answer the question: “Who’s your heroine?” You can find a complete list of the participants and their scheduled guest post dates Here!


About Katie M. Stout

Katie M. Stout is from Atlanta, Georgia, and works for an international charity that sends her to fun places like Spain and Singapore. When she’s not writing, you can find her drinking an unhealthy amount of chai tea and listening to Girls’ Generation, Teen Top, and all her other favorite K-pop tunes. Hello, I Love You is her first novel.

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When Jen asked me to be a part of this amazing series, a character instantly popped into my head. There are a lot of amazing literary heroines out there who are smart, brave, and capable, but my pick is none of those things. My pick is Becky Bloomwood, the materialistic, scatterbrained, slightly airhead-ish shopaholic from Sophie Kinsella’s Confessions Of A Shopaholic and subsequent novels.

Because people who write books are — not surprisingly — bookish themselves, the characters in their novels are often bookish too. I love those heroines; I can relate to them. However, as a teen (and even now), there was another side of me. There was a side that loved shoes and who would have rather snagged a new Kate Spade bag half-price than a first edition Charles Dickens. This part of me still doesn’t like the smell of old books and often prefers shopping for a new dress than a new read. And in books, it can be hard to find that kind of character.

Enter Becky Bloomwood.

She’s barely holding down her job in London. She’s in debt up to her eyeballs. She’s not the brightest crayon in the box. She’s got a lot stacked against her. And it’s easy for us to judge her, to call her vapid or stupid (which many readers have). But I don’t think she’s either of those things. I think she’s strong.

Becky quickly realizes at the beginning of her story that she has a serious debt problem. She’s got to curb her spending. She’s going to have to make big adjustments to her life. She’s going to have to change. And even though she has a rough start, she actually does!

As a teen, I had a hard time relating to the “tough” girls, the ones that kick butt, even though I loved reading about them. I also didn’t connect with the ones who had it all together, who were wise beyond their years and whose biggest struggles were waxing poetic about the metaphysical intricacies of life and choosing which boy to date from the hordes that were madly in love with them. I had basically nothing figured out. I made mistakes. And, yes, I probably shopped too much.

Becky Bloomwood taught me that we don’t have to stay where we are. She taught me that we can change. That we can better ourselves — and our lives. She taught me that the first step in changing myself is being humble and admitting that I’m not perfect.

She also taught me that my looks, my bank account, or even my brain wasn’t the most important part of me. She taught me that my heart was. That being kind and tenacious mean more than being smart.

Maybe that doesn’t resonate with some people, but it did with teen me.

And it still does.

Title Hello, I Love You
Author Katie M. Stout
Pages 304 Pages
Genre Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Publisher St. Martin’s Griffin
To Be Published June 9th, 2015
Find It On GoodreadsAmazon.comChaptersThe Book Depository

Grace Wilde is running — from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.


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Hi! I’m Jen! I’m a thirty-something introvert who loves nothing more than the cozy comfort of home and snuggling my two rescue cats, Pepper and Pancakes. I also enjoy running, jigsaw puzzles, baking and everything Disney. Few things bring me more joy than helping a reader find the right book for them!

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